HOW TO DO EVERYTHING

9 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, AFTER CLUB

Today, Harvey was the one waiting at the car. He was leaning against it coolly, in his usual calm, washed jeans, navy t-shirt, and leather jacket.

Matt, Jules, and Bra were standing around chatting with him. They were laughing like old friends.

A couple of girls I passed were secretly taking photos.

"Yo, princess." Harvey straightened up and smiled before I could pretend I didn't know him. He opened the car door.

"Where's Priya?" Bra looked annoyed, "It's like she has to be the last one out every week!"

"Chill, Alvin's not out either." Jules said, "Bye Sam! Bye Harv!"

Harv shut the door for me and said his goodbyes. Then he got into the car, "How was your day, princess?"

I had no idea how to answer that, so I resorted to what I always told Mum, "It was okay. What about you?"

Harvey looked caught off guard. Why? Did no one ever asked him how his day went? He took a moment to answer, "It was busy but smooth. Thank you for your care, princess."

And then without further ado, he presented me with the rest of the day:

We were rushing home and have to prepare for dinner with the Lorent's.

For some reason, Alpha Lorent had decided to invite Mum and Dad for dinner too.

So Harvey would drive the three of us over to their home where we would meet Ki and my Luna.

My Luna was working at the Underground right now, and may be a little late for dinner.

Also, Alpha Lorent hoped to introduce me to his nephew, the late Beta Lorent's son, Anthony. Lady Amber would also like to meet me.

Yes, Beta Lorent was dead. Harvey was not sure of the details, although he was pretty sure Ki would have them.

Luna Bell's brother, Charles Lorent would not be joining us for dinner either. He was seldom home before 10pm, straggling his time between his hospital internship and responsibilities as the school president. But he was expected to be back after dinner for the introductory meeting straight after.

So dinner would be just my parents, Bell and his parents, as well as Lady Amber and the young Beta Anthony.

After which there would be a meeting to introduce the rest of the Lorent Pack leaders.

"Would it be troublesome for Ben to come too? For the introductory meeting." I figured we might as well introduce all my betas.

"No trouble at all. I'll have that arranged immediately." Harvey promised.

"How'd you do it Harvey?" I asked.

There was a pause, "How do I do what, princess?"

"Like you have school, right? And you're student president, and you have so much beta work, and training, and stuff...how do you do everything?"

Harvey gave me a wry smile, "I've wondered about it myself."

"And?" I wanted to know.

"And what princess?" Harvey asked.

"Spill it, tell me your secret. In detail." I felt convinced that if I had this secret, I could do it too.

"Oh...well, to be honest, princess, I don't do it, not by myself. I have a lot of support from my family. My mum, she packs all my meals, washes my laundry, and cleans my room. I'm ashamed to admit, but I very rarely help around the house at all. On days that I've got a heavier workload from Night Leaf or school, my Dad takes the bulk of Morning Light work. Just as when my dad is busy or out of town, I take his share. Ben and Ki had covered for me more times than I can count. Our mindlinks are always open. There are also three of us, so we rotate and distribute our responsibilities. Lola too, has been a tremendous help with the work of the student council. My teachers email me work that I've missed and while I am personally mindful to hand in everything within the week and keep my GPA constant, they are very understanding of my pack commitments. And now that both our packs recognize us as your future betas, the gammas, deltas and warriors from both sides take our instruction without question. So I suppose the secret is I can do what I do because of those who run with me."

There it was! The "run with the strength of your pack" thing again. I wondered if there was something I wasn't getting. Why was this something everyone was telling me? Well not everyone, Just Dad, and Flynn, and Mum... even Ben had seemed frustrated with me at times. Was I not doing it right?

And because he was my most long winded beta, he had to continue, "This year has been pretty hectic, but the learning experience has been rewarding too. I did think of stepping down from my position as Student President but after discussing it with Delta Charlie, I decided to continue. I since come to realize that my experiences leading the student council also contributed to my becoming a better beta. For example, being part of the student council helped me explore productive and administrative skills I use daily in my beta work. And leading the student body had helped me understand to a limited extent the daily pressures of being the Alpha."

Really? Because I faced no pressure whatsoever.

Not from being the Alpha anyway. My stress comes from having to deal with things like a vampire desk buddy, eating lunch with Abigail and her random girls. Or accepting a little human in my home. Or killing trees. Or girl talk. Or being hunted by a vampire lord. Or dealing with dying history teachers. Or reading nearly 3 thousand reports on my Kindle. Or memorising lines so I don't get stabbed on stage.

Being the Alpha was the easy part.

"You always make it look so easy, princess." He smiled at me wryly.

Harvey was the one who always made it look easy. I shook my head, "Actually, I don't think any of my responsibilities are too difficult, it's doing everything at once that's the problem!"

At that Harvey chuckled, "Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, princess."

So Harvey felt that way too? Did he get home after 10pm every night too?

"What time do you get home everyday?" I asked.

"It depends." Harvey said.

"What about tonight?" I asked.

"Tonight... hopefully before midnight. I have homework." He replied after a pause.

"Me too." I said feeling decidedly happier about my lot in life.

And then Harvey shook his head with a wry smile, "Why do you ask, Princess?"

"Coach Emerson wants me to try for the competitive team." I answered, I held up the name card that I was still holding in my hand, "I don't think I'm that good at it, just really lucky."

"They say luck is a skill too." Harvey told me.

I'd like to know who said rubbish like that.

Harvey gave the name card a side glance at the traffic light, "Your coach is a Lorent Delta?"

I nodded, "Dad needs to call him."

Harvey nodded, "Noted, princess."

I flipped the white card in my hands about, front to back to back to front... How did Harvey know this was a Lorent wolf's card? Beta magic.

If they can say luck was a skill, I can say Harvey's secret was Beta magic.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, just more slowly because the traffic towards Gate City was bad. But we made it before the road into the packlands got jammed too and I watched the fields and forest and the signs that said slow at checkpoint, but Harvey didn't slow at all and we went straight through without seeing a shadow of a wolf. Just like we did every day.

But now that I knew they were there, I noticed the slip off road when we passed it, and my wolf radar flipped on to seek them all out. Yeah, they were there... Guarding, patrolling... All the usual warrior stuff.

When we got home, Harvey dropped me off at my porch. He stopped the car, got out to open the door for me. I hadn't waited and let myself out, so Harvey simply led me to my own front door, knocked twice on the knocker, and using his keycard, unlocked it for me. He announced the moment we entered, "Alpha Princess is here."

"Yo princess!" Sabre yelled from Mum's lap.

"Hello Harvey, thank you for fetching Sam from school." Mum didn't get up from her seat by the hallway.

"You're welcome, Luna." Harvey answered with a polite bow before excusing himself to put the car away.

"Why are you two sitting at the doorway?" I asked.

"We're waiting for Savy." Mum told me, "She should be home anytime now."

"Savy's going to give me a makeover!" Sabre looked up from her picture book to announce.

I nodded vaguely at that and patted her head. It was what Dad used to do to me when I was small too. I wondered if it meant he was just as clueless as I was on how to respond to little people's strange announcements.

"How was school Sam?" Mum asked. She seemed to be struggling to get Sabre into a sweater. Sabre was busy trying to read with both her hands holding tightly to a picture book, so Mum only managed to get her head though.

The rest of it rested around her thin shoulders. Even though she was still thin, Sabre had been gaining weight. Her cheeks looked a lot fuller and pinker now, and she didn't have bones jutting out in weird places anymore. Like her collar bone was normal looking now.

"School was okay." I said, "I need to go shower and change."

Mum nodded, "Goodness look at the time! Why isn't Savy home yet? I need to get ready too!"

"I'll be quick!" I promised.

"No, no, Sam! Take your time and do your makeup. Savy will help you with your hair when she gets back. You're meeting your Mate's parents!" Mum said.

Urm... Why was Mum acting like she didn't know I spent the night at the Lorent's?

"And Lady Amber too!" Mum worried.

"Who's that?" Sabre wanted to know.

"A very lovely lady." Mum told her, "Who is going to teach Sam how to be a lovely lady too."

"Lovely like you Mama?" Sabre asked.

Mum smiled and kissed her hair, "You're such a sweetie."

I left before Mum could get on my case again. Or worse, remember that I had snuck out and spent the night at the Lorent's.

Yes, something was off that Mum wasn't grinding my ears off for sneaking out last night - but would you blame me for not prodding to find out why?

I found my way back to my room - yes the one with the golden clamshell. It was like the landmark in my home that confirmed for me that this was indeed my bedroom.

There were a few problems about my home.

Firstly, my room was in a seperate wing from the main house. It even had it's own entrance and exit, so I hadn't been to the main house much. Stepping into it sometimes felt a bit like being a friendly unannounced neighbour. The way Savy and I used to pop by at Lizzy and Ben's if we were bored.

Secondly, in my own tower, the pool on the first floor conceals most scents. I only pass the kitchenette on my way up. My own room was lemon scented which covered the smell of new construction and upholstery, but also overpowered my scent. Plus because my other family members almost never came up here, the room still smelled new.

Third, everything was cleaned and tidied away so regularly that the house always looked untouched like the first day I stepped into it.

I guess our new home still needed time before it smelled and felt truly lived in. Meanwhile, I smelled of archery hall with all the musk of school gym storerooms. So maybe the one with the problem was me.

I went over to my bed and cuddled Sir Sparkalot. Just a bit. Since no one was looking. He had many comforting smells.

I guess there was nothing wrong with anything. I just needed more time to settle in. It was confusing for me to not be able to find my "home" with my nose. I missed my old bed (Curse you Rogue King!). I even missed the coziness of the old cramped lower bunk. I just got used to that, I even got used to Sabre...and now I had to get use to this...this singling out of my scent from the rest of my family's.

Part of me wanted to go back to sleep in Mate's bed, just because I felt more comfortable surrounded by his scent. But nothing else in his home felt particularly like home for me at all.

I was better off here. I honestly liked my room. I guess It just grew on me, gilded mirrors and golden clamshell bed and all.

And it was nice to have the right clothes just magically hanging on the golden birdcage when I needed it. Tonight's outfit was a sleek white satin ceremonial dress.

There were also white stockings with lace at the top, white heeled booties. Just everything in white, even the wool coat with hood was a dark white.

Hahaha, yeah, I just realized that if you enough stuff in white, you start to see that there were many different shades of white.

I took a shower and changed into all the whiteness. The stockings reached my thighs so all the lace parts was under the skirt. Seemed like a wasted detail.

And then I walked over to the gilded mirrors and looked at the blue hair person. I tilted my head, was that me? Turned to my side to check my profile I caught sight of the slit on one side of the skirt.

I was wrong, the lace on my stockings wasn't a wasted detail at all. I tried to pull the skirt so that it wouldn't show.

I felt a bit like I was about to attend a fancy dress party. Maybe this one was a Lorent Princess themed one.